Growing Up In Ridgewood

 

      Like Paul and Kurt I too am drawn into our Ridgewood history! Its probably because I loved every minute of my childhood and my later school years. That's not to say that I didn't have my ups and downs - I had my insecure years - 6th grade, part of 7th then 10th grade. But through it all it was the best!

 

      I have great memories of all 3 schools I attended (Glen, BF and RHS). I was a fun-loving kid and as such my grades always suffered! But I had some great teachers in BF and RHS that always looked out for me - in fact my Spanish teacher from 10th grade - Miss Muster - came to my graduation to watch me graduate! She had faith in me. In my senior year, I did what I should have been doing every year which was ace just about all my classes! The best was when Mr. McCutcheon congratulated me - he always tried desperately to keep me in line - what a great man! Teachers can and do make a difference in our lives.

 

 

Above is an early postcard of our high school.

 

        

     Graydon Pool - wow! There have always been complaints about Graydon but I hope the core of Graydon never changes - it was the best! It had this distinctive smell - it was this combination of Coppertone, the water, the sand. I went there for swimming lessons. I always wanted to be like my sisters and sit on the "grass" - that's where all the high school kids were! My gym teacher Mr. Bookstaver was a lifeguard there! What an approriate place to end one's school years - the traditional early morning dip there before heading to the Jersey Shore after having celebrated all night long on graduation day! When I was little - my dad and I always went downtown on saturday mornings - haircuts, paper store (baseball cards!), liquor store (wasn't a big deal!), Corde Cleaners, Victor's House of Music, Perdue's Sport Shop for baseball stuff, Drapkin's - I mean the list goes on! The memories are many and doing all of that with my dad was so much fun! In my future posts I will try to focus on one facet of this town we love so much! 

 

       Paul was kind enough to invite me as a blogger and I appreciate the invitation! This will be fun!